Glass Beach - Let's Join Natures Fight

by Derek DoddsJuly 05, 2014

Before you say anything about the content of this article, I hate people who litter.

I’ll judge you if I think you’re too lazy to recycle. I hate pollution and the death of our fragile ecosystems and all the rest. But—with that disclaimer out of the way—Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, California is the incredible result of human wastefulness and the resilience of nature.

I’ve been trolling around for lesser fort bragg glass beach pebbles known landscapes to road trip to and explore, and stumbled across this chunk of multi colored west coast paradise.

These days, Glass Beach is a protected part of MacKerricher State Park, but in 1949, it was the site of an unrestricted dump. For 18 years, people drove out to the scenic expanse of ocean cliffs, marveled at the beauty of the natural world and the majesty of the depths, and then threw all their shit in.

Eventually, California realized that dumping automobiles, appliances, toxic substances and razor sharp shards of glass into the water was probably a bad idea, and looked elsewhere for a dumping site.

The beaches under the cliffs lay polluted, cluttered and ruined, and were basically treated as a forgotten ‘mistake.’

Despite our obviously brilliant handling of the situation, Mother Earth had a few tricks up her sleeve, and spent the next 30 years tumbling away the jagged edges of our insensitivity and leaving behind brilliant pebbles of polished glass.

As the shores grew into glimmering beaches, the state realized that people were visiting to collect the glass and to see the rainbow sands reflecting the sun, and quickly annexed it into a national park.

The result?

We finished up what nature graciously started, spent a few years cleaning up rusting metal hulks and all sorts of wonderfully dangerous debris (nothing says sandcastle fun like getting tetanus from a lead-filled 50's throwback), and Glass Beach is now a protected treasure that I’m dying to visit.

While I can only imagine the sight of the colors of translucent glass turning in the sun and turbulent surf, I’m thinking I might just keep my shoes on.

Also in Eco

I love buying surfboards, and when the editors at Deep told me that this was the Board Buyers issue I got as excited as a Mick Fanning shark attack (sorry, I had too), We all love that feeling of new foam under our feet and it’s likely the thing we talk about most with our bros while drinking beer and reminiscing about all those waves we caught down in Costa Rica last season.

Our growing concerns about the Zika, West Nile, and other mosquito-borne viruses have led to the institution of mosquito control programs in many town and cities in the U.S. One effective means of eliminating adult mosquitoes is aerial spraying with an organophosphate pesticide called Naled. Unfortunately, there’s been collateral damage to many beneficial insects; the honeybee is one of them.

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Size Chart

Surfboard Leashes

Buy a leash closest to your board size—i.e. for 6'4 surfboard you need a 6' leash.

All leashes are 7mm thick, competition leashes which are lighter/thinner 5.5 mm.

5'6 - 6 - 6 comp - 7 - 8 - 9 - 9 Calf - 10 - 10 Coil

calf (leash strap attaches to calf for larger boards)

coil (mostly for lake and open water boards)

Pioneer Day Boardbags - Fits One Surfboard

All boardbags have +2 inches. Thus a 6'6 board fit's perfectly in a 6'6 boardbag. All Pioneer bags have expandable fin gussets, so you can keep your fins on your board in the bag—or you can roll with glass-on fins.

Pioneer bags also have an exterior pocket and zip all the way to the nose.

Travel Bags - Fits Two Surfboards

All Global boardbags have +2 inches, so if you buy a 6'2 boardbag, the real length is 6'4—thus you have a bit of room to play.

Global Travel Bag Sizes:

Mini Simmons 6'2 - 6'7 - 7'6 | width 26"

Shortboard 6' - 6'7 - -7'0 - 7'6 | width 22"x

Longboard/Mal 8'6 - 9'6 | width 25"

Travel boardbags are 6'-8' inches deep to accommodate two boards—though you can travel with one in these bags without a problem—there are two interior pockets for leash, wax, and fins.

Travel boardbags have two padded boards separators and two pockets for your gear.

* Travel boardbags also have 13mm + 13mm of extra padding in the nose and tail.

Travel Bags with Wheels - Fits Two Surfboards

New in 2016 is the double travel bag with wheels. Sometimes you want a smaller bag with wheels, now you can have it. All Global boardbags have +2 inches, so if you buy a 6'2 boardbag, the real length is 6'4—thus you have a bit of room to play.

Global Travel Bag Sizes:

Mini Simmons 6'2 - 6'7 - 7'6 | width 26"

Shortboard 6' - 6'7 - -7'0 - 7'6 | width 22"x

Longboard/Mal 8'6 - 9'6 | width 25"

Travel boardbags are 6'-8' inches deep to accommodate two boards—though you can travel with one in these bags without a problem—there are two interior pockets for leash, wax, and fins.

Travel boardbags have two padded boards separators and two pockets for your gear.

* Travel boardbags also have 13mm + 13mm of extra padding in the nose and tail.

Boardbag Material & Hardware - All Bags

Side A of the bag is made from a strong density Rugged Eco Hemp exterior which is one tough fiber and naturally built to last with high impact padding protection with Rebound Foam Dynamics including open-to-nose technology.

Side B is the reflective (rental-car-roof-side) made from Reflective Energy Shield for "Cooler Surfboard Safeguard" protecting your surfboard from the sun's harmful rays made from an alloy-steel mesh weave.